We all need a little incentive every once in a while! These reward punch cards are a way to motivate children to experience the satisfaction of a job well done. It is a great feeling when we accomplish a task and we want our children to experience the results of completing a job. Eventually, we want our children to be self-motivated to complete tasks simply because they understand that hard work has its own rewards. In the meantime, we as parents get to help them along as they learn the rewards of daily routines.
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Summer is coming and kids will be descending upon home in droves! What a great time of the year to reinforce the behavior with these free reward punch cards! Obviously, you could use these reward punch cards any time of the year, but they might just be the ticket to shake up your summer routine!
There is a generic card in the punch card packet, but there are also seven other punch cards that have specific goals in mind.
I do believe or recommend rewarding children for everything they do! We firmly believe that children ‘do’ things in our home simply because they are a part of our family. End of story. However, there are certain times that I find it helpful to do some sort of reward system. These reward cards are for those times.
Using Incentives in Homeschooling
It’s not a secret that we have been enjoying homeschooling this year. Next year when my oldest is in kindergarten and my younger two are pre-k/toddler age our homeschooling will look a lot different, but for this year we’ve enjoyed experimenting with our routines! I used two different curriculums and ended up dropping them around Christmas, only to pick bits and pieces of them back up, only to eventually end our year firmly in a very ‘unschooling‘ philosophy manner. I found that my children are very curiosity-driven and love following their own questions. With me working full-time, I ended up finding this a very freeing way to home-school.
Next year will look different, but for now, it has been a beautiful time for us.
However, one thing that has slipped during our unschooling experiment is that we have sort of become very lax on items that I feel are important. We still do a bit of book work such as our morning menus. An unintended result of having a less structured routine has been that there isn’t a routine! Items like chores, read-aloud, bookwork, etc., have become infrequent. Our reward punch card system is going to be a way that I reinforce those things this year that I want to remain consistent in our routine.
There are many other ways you can use reward punch cards with homeschooling. Take the templates and use them however, you see fit to reward and motivate your children! Here are the 8 current punch card titles.
Chores
As our children become older their chores change. This is a great thing, but occasionally children need an extra boost when getting into the routine of their new chores. perhaps offer them a punch card with an incentive at the end for doing them a certain amount of times.
Screentime
Screentime can be highly motivating for children. Use the screentime punch card to set a certain amount of screentime for a certain task, chore, or behavior. One example would be that my 5-year-old gets 30 minutes of screentime after 10 days of remembering to make his bed without me reminding him. Although we haven’t done that one yet, it’s on my list for this summer!
Cleaning
Cleaning is a little bit different than chores. We use these when we are working on one specific new chore such as unloading the dishwasher or collecting the eggs from the chicken coop.
Choices
This is a big one for my little ones right now. We constantly are making choices in this world and we want to reinforce ones that reflect the Fruit of the Spirit in our home.
Reading
This is a great card for emerging readers or just as a fun way to encourage book reading during the summer. Maybe there is a toy or gift that your child has been wanting. Perhaps after they read 10 books they could earn that toy or gift! There are many different ways to use this punch card.
Kindness
It pains me to admit this, but my 5-year-old is struggling with kindness. Especially when he feels like someone is threatening his stuff he resorts to pushing or grabbing instead of gently asking or allowing someone to use his things. We specifically have seen this come out at playgrounds with strangers. It’s so sad for me to see that we have started using punch cards as a way to call out when we see kindness.
Summer
I’ve included a summer punch card as a fun way to as a family get to do something fun or get something fun. The punches could be earned by a number of things including anything mentioned above once the card is filled the reward goes to the entire family!
Reward
The last reward punch card is simply a generic one that can be used however you wish.
At the bottom of this post, you will find two download links. The first is for a printable Reward Punch Cards PDF along with all the individual PDFs. Secondly, there is a Canva template that you can use and input your own punch card ideas.
How to Use
In order to use the Reward Punch cards you simply need a printer, scissors, and punch.
We love our Epson printer and especially like that it takes XL ink cartridges, which saves us a lot of money! When you go to print, I recommend printing at the highest quality and using thicker paper. The coloring will be drastically reduced if using lower-quality settings.
Ideas for Rewards
This is the fun part! What are you going to reward your kiddos with!? Here are a few things that we have used over the years.
- Special toy
- New book
- Trip to the zoo
- Fun outing
- Trip to a favorite park
- New bedding for the bedroom
- Staying up for an extra hour at bedtime
- Special time with Mom or Dad
- Puzzle or game
Download the Reward Punch Cards
Simply click on the buttons below to download whichever version you would find most helpful. If you are interested in more printables, make sure you join the Printables for Kids vault!
Don’t forget to Pin for Later!
